Sacha Baron Cohen at His Most Outrageous

From Ali G to Borat to Brüno, the characters who've made a scene.

E. Charbonneau

Published July 16, 2018

Published a month ago

Somewhere on the spectrum between impish and offensive lives the career of Sacha Baron Cohen, the British-born comedian who, through his various TV sketch shows and movies, has gleefully pressed political and cultural hot buttons for nearly 20 years now. As his controversial new Showtime series "Who Is America?" continues to generate chatter (and headaches) for the public figures duped into appearing on it (Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney among them), here's a look back at Cohen's characters/caricatures.

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Dave Hogan/Getty ImagesHanging with Rastafarians, circa 2000.Patrick Fraser/Corbis via Getty ImagesAS MICHAEL JACKSONSpoofing the moment the King of Pop dangled his infant son off a balcony.

Jason LaVeris/FilmMagicAS NOBBYAt the L.A. premiere of "The Brothers Grimsby," in which he played an alcoholic soccer hooligan (and apparent Donald Trump supporter), 2016.Gustavo Caballero/Getty ImagesTaking over the cameras on Univision's "Despierta America," 2016.Kevork Djansezian/Getty ImagesAS GENERAL ALADEENToting around an urn with the face of Kim Jong-il at the Oscars, February 2012. (Kim had just died the previous December.)

AFP/AFP/Getty ImagesAS BRÜNOCohen's over-the-top, gay Austrian fashion reporter was actually among the first in his stable of characters, but didn't get his own movie until 2009. Pictured: Brüno arriving at an Amsterdam premiere in outrageous fashion.Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesRiding a blinged-out tank at the L.A. premiere of "Brüno."Gareth Cattermole/Getty ImagesMissing trousers at the London premiere...

JAVIER SORIANO/AFP/Getty Images...and playing a bull in Madrid.Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagicAs Brüno at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, Cohen flew over the crowd and seemed to offend one VIP...Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagicBrüno's crotch memorably "landed" right in Eminem's face.

Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesThough he appeared unamused on the telecast, Eminem (seen walking away at bottom left) was in on the joke. "I’m thrilled that we pulled this off better than we rehearsed it," the superstar rapper later said. "It had so many people going 'nuts,' so to speak. Everyone was blowing me up about it."FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty ImagesIn 2008, Brüno crashed a show by designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada during fashion week in Milan. It wasn't the only time he was a thorn in the side of security guards.TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP/Getty ImagesAS BORATPerhaps Cohen's most popular character is the bumbling Kazakh journalist, who has caused scenes all over the world (including in Sydney, above, at the premiere of "Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"). The role won Cohen a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy in 2006, and the movie was nominated at the Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay.

NBC/NBC via Getty ImagesShocking Martha Stewart as Borat on "The Tonight Show," 2006.MJ Kim/Getty ImagesWith actors dressed up as poor Kazakh children at the London premiere of "Borat"...John Shearer/WireImage for 20th Century Fox Studios...and with women pulling him down the red carpet at the movie's Toronto premiere.

George Pimentel/WireImageBorat kicking up a scene in Cannes, 2006. The man he's sitting on isn't the only person Cohen has irritated -- after duping Sarah Palin into appearing on "Who Is America?" by posing as a disabled veteran, she blogged that his comedy was "another example of the sick nature that is media-slash-entertainment today."